Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of fasteners. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a toggling fastening device.
Electronic and instrumentation equipment is often deployed in chassis-mounted packages. Illustratively, servers, data storage units, and network components, to name some such electronic equipment, are often deployed in this chassis-mounted configuration. Chassis mounting makes centralizing the location of servers, storage units, network components, and other electronic equipment convenient because stationary and semi-stationary racks, cabinets, cubicles, and similar structures exist for housing such electronic equipment.
Conventionally, chassis-mounted electronic packages are installed in racks and similar structures using screws threaded into nuts of various types, including, for example, clip nuts. Clip nuts or other nuts are typically installed on columns and similar support structures within the racks and other structures. One typical rack design has four such columns running vertically. The columns have holes punched into them, through which bolts and other mounting hardware items pass, which are then threaded into the clip nuts or other nuts mounted behind the hole. Electronic packages are typically mounted horizontally, supported via their own flanging on the rack columns by screws penetrating both the flange and the column, threaded to sufficient tightness into the clip nuts or other nuts.
Various designs exist for clip nuts and other nuts. Many nut designs are quite familiar. Typically, a clip-held nut is affixed to the columns by spring tension or similar holding force exerted by a part of the clip. The clip nuts are all installed before an electronic package can be installed. One major task of installation guides for electronic equipment and their rack mounts as well as various product and technical documentation is to inform the installer where the clip nuts need to be located on the four columns of a mounting rack to satisfactorily install the electronic package.
There are some problems that can arise with installing or moving an electronic or similar package within a rack or similar structure using conventional clip nuts. One problem that can occur in such installations is that one or more of the clips are installed incorrectly. Illustratively, the clip nut can be installed in the wrong hole in the rack column, perhaps offset by as little as a single space. With reference to Prior Art FIG. 1, a chassis mounted package is to be mounted through its flange 104 to rack column 102, into which holes 110, 111, and 112 have been punched, drilled, etc. A clip screw 106 is affixed over hole 110. A bolt 108 is pushed through hole 109 in flange 104 so as to support the chassis-mounted package. The path 115 of bolt 108 passes through hole 111 for a properly aligned mounting. However, the clip nut is not in the correct position to secure the bolt 108. Thus, it is misaligned.
Such a problem can occur with troubling frequency, even with trained, experienced users. It is easy to see why-one common rack design has 1,968 holes punched into its columns for mounting packages therein, each hole approximately one inch from the next. This particular problem can be frustrating for users. When it occurs, the electronic package must be removed, the clip nut must be repositioned, and the package reinstalled and its mounting screws tightened, hopefully each now in a correctly positioned clip nut.
To remove clip nuts for repositioning, other problems can arise. When clip nuts must be repositioned, a tool and some amount of force must be brought to bear. Sometimes, the clip nut may fall within the rack or other enclosure. Upon falling, they can encounter electrical connections and cause an electrical fault such as a short or ground. Also upon falling, they can damage equipment such as ventilating fan blades, exposed delicate components in packages mounted beneath them, and/or other items. Further, upon falling a clip nut can become lost on the floor of the rack or other enclosure, which may be cluttered with cables, conductor bundles, and the like. Further still, clip nuts have somewhat sharp edges that can cause injury to a user attempting to remove and/or reposition a balky one.
Clip nuts themselves have costs associated with their procurement, such that losing them is wasteful. Over and above the cost of losing and replacing clip nuts however are other associated costs, such as users"" labor costs and costs of delays associated with their repositioning and/or replacement efforts, costs associated with damage caused by their fall, and the human, temporal, and monetary costs associated with injuries caused thereby.
Conventionally, possible problems with using clip nuts for mounting electronic and other packages in racks and other enclosures have been addressed in several ways. First, newer clip nuts have been designed to improve their ease of use. However, even such improved clip nuts are subject to initial and subsequent mis-positioning, dropping, and loss. A second conventional solution has been to thread, rather than punch, each and every one of the plethora of holes in the columns of the racks or other enclosures, such that bolts and other mounting hardware items can be secured directly into the threaded holes. However, this is expensive. A third conventional alternative is to use only enclosures such as two-post racks, which often come with pre-threaded holes in their support columns. However, this precludes selecting other racks, which may be preferable (or even required) in a specific application. Hence, conventional approaches to mounting electronic and similar packages in racks and other enclosures are found somewhat wanting.
A fastening device is disclosed. The fastening device has a slotted shaft, a toggling mechanism, which deploys from within the slotted shaft, and which is adapted to couple the slotted shaft to a supporting structure, a detent mechanism disposed about the slotted shaft to deter its rotation, and a tightening mechanism adapted to couple to the shaft. The tightening mechanism binds the fastening device securely in place.